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Safeguarding: Teenage boys targeted in 'sextortion' trend

Safeguarding E-safety
There has been a concerning rise in online “sextortion” of young people, referring to cases when online predators trick victims into sharing images and then blackmail them.
Image: Adobe Stock

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) says that in the first six months of 2023 reports have risen substantially compared to the whole of 2022, with boys aged 14 to 17 most likely to be targeted.

Sexually coerced extortion, or “sextortion” as it’s often referred to, occurs when sexually explicit images or videos are exchanged online and the victim is subsequently blackmailed with threats to share the content with friends and family or more widely on the internet.

The IWF is a child protection hotline that finds and removes imagery of child sexual abuse from the internet, including images from cases of child sextortion.

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